A Redbird Christmas

Oswald T. Campbell is a 52-year-old divorced man living alone at the De Soto Apartment Hotel for Men in Chicago. During a blizzard, he receives devastating news: His emphysema, compounded by childhood tuberculosis and decades of heavy smoking, has reached a critical stage. He will not survive another Chicago winter without relocating; even in the best case, he has one to two years. The diagnosis does not upset Oswald as much as he expects. Abandoned as a baby on church steps with nothing but a basket and a can of Campbell's tomato soup, from which his surname was derived, he was raised in a boys' home and has battled chronic illness and alcohol addiction his entire life. The only person close to him is his ex-wife, Helen Gwinn, who is remarried with two teenage sons. The doctor gives him a faded brochure for the Woodbound Hotel, a health resort in Lost River, Alabama, touting its subtropical climate and healing salt air.

When Oswald calls the number on the brochure, he reaches the Lost River community hall, where Frances Cleverdon, a warm-hearted widow, answers. The hotel burned down in 1911, but Frances arranges a room with her neighbor, Betty Kitchen, a retired army lieutenant colonel and nurse, for $50 a week, meals included. Privately, Frances hopes Oswald might be a romantic match for her younger sister, Mildred, who never recovered from being abandoned a week before her wedding.

Before Oswald's arrival, the novel introduces Roy Grimmitt, the 38-year-old owner of Lost River's only grocery store. Roy once rescued a baby bird shot by two boys with BB guns, nursing it for weeks after a veterinarian determined its damaged wing would never allow it to survive in the wild. As the bird matured, its feathers turned scarlet, revealing it to be a cardinal. Roy named it Jack after it pecked into a Cracker Jack box, and the bird becomes a beloved fixture of the store, learning tricks and charming everyone who visits.

Oswald settles his affairs in Chicago and travels south by train. Butch Mannich, the community's self-appointed private investigator, drives him from the Mobile station to Lost River. Betty installs him in a sunny upstairs room, warning him about her elderly mother, Miss Alma, who has dementia and sees imaginary animals outside her window. Oswald falls into a peaceful routine: breakfast with Betty, coffee with Roy and Jack, and long hours on the dock identifying birds from a field guide. Claude Underwood, the mailman who delivers by boat, takes him on tours of the river, showing him the Creole community on the opposite bank. Applying the guide's taxonomy to himself, Oswald determines he qualifies as "a medium-sized, redheaded, nonbreeding accidental," a category for birds found unexpectedly outside their normal range.

Through Claude and Frances, Oswald learns about a feud dividing the community. Roy and Marie LaPonde grew up together and fell in love, but Marie's father, Julian LaPonde, a Creole taxidermist across the river, forbade the match. When Roy tried to elope with Marie, Julian caught them and shot at Roy. Marie was sent to a convent and eventually married someone else, while Roy joined the marines and returned heartbroken. The two sides of the river have not mixed since.

A shy, barefoot girl in a dirty dress begins appearing at the store window, drawn by Jack. Roy coaxes her inside and learns her name is Patsy. She has a visible birth injury that affects her body and causes her to drag her right leg. Terrified of people but fascinated by Jack, she bonds instantly with the bird, who walks onto her finger and nuzzles her cheek, something he has never done with a stranger. Oswald, who has always disliked children, finds himself unexpectedly attached to the girl. Since neither knows a real birthday, he invents one they share and tells Patsy she could become a veterinarian someday, sparking her ambition.

Frances and the Polka Dots, a secret women's charitable society, grow alarmed when Patsy appears with a handprint on her face. Frances visits the trailer where Patsy lives with Tammie Suggs, a woman who is not her biological mother. Patsy's father left the child and disappeared, and her birth injury resulted from a forceps delivery that also killed her mother. When the Suggs family decides to leave, Tammie asks if anyone wants the child, and Frances takes Patsy in immediately. Later, a state official named Brent Boone arrives: Patsy's father has died, her grandmother has signed her over to the state, and Boone intends to place her in a state home. Roy, Oswald, Claude, and Betty all lie, claiming the family moved away, and Betty hides Patsy before Boone can find her.

Inspired by Lost River's beauty, Oswald begins painting watercolors. Claude arranges for two surgeons attending a medical convention to examine Patsy, and they refer her to Dr. Samuel Glickman, a pediatric orthopedic specialist in Atlanta. Dr. Glickman determines her pelvis and hip were broken at birth and never set; without surgery, she will lose the ability to walk. He waives his fees, but the hospital stay and therapy will cost over $100,000. The community raises funds through bake sales, fish fries, and barbecues. Oswald sells 18 paintings for $250 apiece, and an anonymous donation arrives from the Creole church, whose priest attended one of the shows Roy and Patsy perform with Jack at local events.

The morning before Patsy leaves for surgery, Roy finds Jack dead on the store floor. Patsy cannot learn her best friend has died before facing dangerous operations, so the group decides to have Jack preserved. The only capable taxidermist is Julian LaPonde. Roy rows across the river at dusk carrying Jack's body. Julian meets him with a gun, but Roy breaks down and begs for help. A voice from inside tells Julian to let Roy in; Roy discovers it is Marie, now divorced. Julian works through the night and produces a remarkably lifelike result. The next morning, Frances pulls her car up to the store window where Roy holds the preserved Jack. Patsy waves goodbye from the backseat, completely fooled.

Patsy undergoes three surgeries in Atlanta. Progress is strong until the community sends a well-meaning letter, composed by Dottie Nivens, the town postmistress, telling Patsy that a veterinarian fixed Jack's wing and released him into the wild. Instead of being happy, Patsy is terrified predators will catch him. She loses her will to improve and returns to Lost River weaker, searching for Jack every day. On Christmas Day, Oswald, despairing that he cannot protect Patsy, hitchhikes to a bar and gets drunk for the first time since arriving. Patsy leaves her presents unopened and searches the woods until Frances brings her home.

The morning after Christmas, Miss Alma screams that her camellias are flying off the bushes, and Patsy wakes screaming that Jack landed on her windowsill. Frances discovers the area blanketed in rare snow, the yard alive with hundreds of redbirds, their scarlet plumage vivid against the white. The Creole families row across the river for the first time in 19 years to join the celebration. Roy sees Julian outside the store, invites him in, and buys him a beer, breaking the feud. Roy and Butch had spread 50 pounds of sunflower seeds on Christmas Eve hoping to attract a redbird for Patsy, which may explain the flock, though no one can explain why one bird landed on her window. Oswald, hungover and shaken, silently swears never to drink again.

The event triggers a chain of restorations. Patsy returns to Atlanta and completes her therapy; within a year she walks without a limp. Roy and Marie reunite. Frances proposes to Oswald, telling him Patsy needs a father and that she likes him. Oswald returns to Chicago for a checkup and learns his lungs have cleared significantly. He marries Frances and becomes Patsy's father. Butch marries Amelia Martinez, Patsy's physical therapy nurse. Mildred pursues a courtship with the now-widowed Julian, and they move to New Orleans. Dottie writes a romance novel that wins a first novel award.

Five years later, the community renames itself Redbird, Alabama, and a sign reading "A Bird Sanctuary, Population 108" is unveiled on Christmas Eve. Oswald becomes a recognized artist; his best work, a portrait of Jack and Patsy, hangs in the community hall. In the epilogue, Patsy has grown into a veterinarian specializing in birds, with children of her own. Sometimes when she walks down the street, especially around Christmastime, a redbird flies by, and it always makes her smile.